Unwanted New Beginnings
by mcflusted
Summary: After the death of his parents, Harry Judd is moved to a temporary foster home. Where he meets some of the most interesting people who make a bigger impact on his life than he could ever imagine. (Flones and Pudd) T for swearing.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! This is my first FanFiction in about two years and my first on my new account!**

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><p>Harry stared out the blackened backseat windows that he was sitting in. He hadn't spoken a word since getting up this morning, in fact he had spoken minimally for the last 3 weeks since his parents died in a plane crash. They were only supposed to be gone for a day in Scotland for a conference, but they hadn't come back when they were supposed to.<p>

He had come home from his friend's house after staying the night, put the dinner in the oven and went upstairs to his room to play on GTA V for the entirety of the night until they returned at 'around sixish' as he Mum said. But six came and went, as did seven and eight. Harry didn't think anything of it. Instead of worrying, he just placed the dinner in the microwave so that his parents could heat it up when they got home. He had been on enough planes to know that delays were very common, especially with the cheap airline that his parents were booked with, and he also knew that coming back from Heathrow airport at rush hour meant that you were bound to run into traffic that could last hours. In fact when he was six and they were stuck in traffic coming back from their summer holiday in Spain he completed his first Pokémon. But at around nine thirty, he heard the door knock. Assuming it would be his parents, he opened the door. He never usually opened the door to anyone when he was home alone, not because he was scared or anything, just because it was usually somebody that he didn't know and sometimes it was annoying charity workers who just don't leave you alone. But this time it was a police officer.

At first Harry thought that there had been a robbery down the road, and him being the only person under the age of thirty-five living in Heatherside Avenue, was going to be the main culprit. It wouldn't be the first time. When he and his parents first moved in, Mrs Garret across the road constantly complained to the council about smelling cannabis and was sure that it was coming from his bedroom window and that Harry would ride his bike down the road late at night and through her flower beds. Of course none of it was true, when he smoked weed he smoked it in the local park with everyone else, and she did eventually realise that maybe Harry wasn't a typical hooded teenager to fear. However she still didn't like the idea of teenager living her beloved avenue so he was pretty sure that this was just one of her ways to get him to move out.

But the police officer wasn't here to talk to him about anything like that. He was there to tell him that his parents were dead.

Dead.

His parents were dead.

The police explained everything that happened, at around 4:45 in the afternoon, the 4:30 flight from Scotland had gone down. They had explained why but it wasn't a normal reason that he could understand. And there were only four survivors, and among those four were neither of his parents. That night he was taken to a group home to stay the night whilst they looked for a more temporary situation for him to live and decided it was better for Harry to get a decent nights sleep to digest the news before going through paperwork and details.

It turned out Harry didn't have much where else to go. He had friends, but not friends that he was so close to that he could just move in with them forever more. And then his Mum's parents were both dead before Harry was even born, they both died due to smoking related cancers when they were in their early fifties and His Dad's parents were not in any state to look after a teenager, even if they did love him. His grandparents were both eighty and they had just lost their son so shoving Harry on top of them in their one bedroom bungalow didn't seem like a fair option for anybody. His Mum had one sister who lived in New Zealand and Harry had only met her a couple of times. So Moving Harry to the other side of the earth to live with almost complete strangers seemed unnecessary. Also Harry was pretty sure that the police had asked her to take him and she had said no.

So Harry was kept at the group home for what felt like forever, having meetings with social workers. Them deciding things for him. Deciding that it was probably best for him to not go back to his old family home and pick his stuff up. Deciding that it was probably the best for him to go to therapy twice a week for the next six months. Deciding that it was best for him to not stay at the group home for a long period and look for a foster placement as soon as possible.

That last one he agreed with. The kids in the group home were angry and bitter so he stayed out of their way for as long as possible, as much as possible.

Sure enough, a foster placement arrived for him two weeks later.

He was told that it was a lovely couple in their fifties who had never been able to have children of their own, so they had been fostering for years. They apparently lived around an hour away and already were fostering three boys his age, so it seemed like the perfect placement for him. Deciding that a distance and a new school would stop any recurring memories of his parents, Harry agreed. And any home was better than the group home he was currently staying in.

And here he was, on his way to suburban London with his small case of belongings and a social worker.

"Harry, You can get out now. We're here." Harry sat up straighter, unbuckled his seat belt and opened the door. He squinted his eyes trying to adjust them to the light. The neighborhood didn't look too bad, the road was reasonably long. Well longer than Heatherside Avenue which only contained six houses. But the houses here were smaller and closer together than he was used to. Not letting the size put him off, he stepped out and walked round to the front door where the social worker was standing, holding Harry's suitcase.

Knocking on the door, the social worker looked at Harry, who was looking at the floor. "Don't be nervous."

"I'm not nervous." Harry said blankly, not looking up from his feet.

The door opened, revealing a woman. She was shorter than Harry and had creases around her brown eyes. She was very slim with thinning light brown hair that was slightly grey. "Hello Mike," She said. "Hello Harry." She turned to Harry and smile, Harry smiled back out of politeness. He may not be enthusiastic about living here with strangers but this woman was allowing Harry to live in her home out of being purely good-natured.

"Hello Diane." The social worker said walking into the house, Harry following closely behind.

"I've sent the other three up for the time being, they are lovely boys but meeting them all at once can sometimes be a bit," She paused for a moment. "Full on. Especially when they are excited about having somebody joining us." She smiled again, closing the door and walking into the sitting room.

The sitting room was fairly large, a dining table at one end and a couple of brown couches facing a television at the other. It was all painted a neutral cream colour. Harry didn't dislike it, it smelt nice and felt welcoming unlike the group home. But it felt like somebody else home, rather than his own.

"It's fine Diane." the social worker sat down at the dining room table and Harry slumped down next to him, this house had the same table-cloth as his friend at school. "This is Harry Judd, his parents died three weeks ago in a plane crash." Diane gave a sympathetic look at Harry, it was a look that he was used to now. People had been giving him it for the past three weeks.

Harry zoned out of the conversation pretty much, He had heard it all before, "Sees a Psychiatrist every twice week." "Has been taken out of his old school and will attend the local one here from next week." "Stuff will be dropped here at a later date, in case the placement doesn't work out." There was nothing new to hear and he didn't particularly want to hear the ins and outs of his life being told by somebody he had known for a matter of days.

"Diane, I'm hungry!" A voice called out from behind the closed-door before opening it loudly. "Can I have some food."

"Danny, how many times do I have to tell you not to just barge in, it's incredibly rude." Diane said. "I'm trying to talk to Harry and Mike here."

"But I'm hungry." Danny frowned, "And so is Tom and Dougie."

"Don't bring us into this Dan!"

"Yeah!"

"We've been upstairs for hours, Diane. Please can we have food?" Danny asked again, placing his hands together as if he was praying.

"It has barely been an hour, Danny. Go make you and the others some sandwiches in the kitchen." Danny grinned at Diane.

"Thanks Diane." Danny raced back out the room and slammed the door behind him. He heard Danny shout out to some others something like "She said we could have sandwiches" After a couple of seconds Danny reappeared. "Do you want one?" Danny asked, looking at Harry.

Harry didn't know how to answer, he was hungry but he felt rude intruding on these people. "Go on Harry, I've got more things to talk to Mike about so you may as well go and meet them." Harry looked from Diane to Danny, who was staring blankly into space.

"Okay then." Harry nodded, and stood up. Meeting the other three boys was probably better than whatever Mike and Diane was going to talk about.

Danny walked through the house and into the kitchen with Harry following very closely behind. "I'm Danny by the way." Harry nodded and walked into the kitchen. It was much smaller than anything Harry was used to. At his home, he had a state of the art modernized kitchen with every gadget imaginable. This was small and simple with small counters which had two boys sitting on. Harry would never have dreamed of sitting on top of his kitchen counter at home, let alone at somebody elses house. It was just strange. And unhygienic.

"That's Tom and Dougie." Danny said, pointing to the two blonds sitting on the counter.

Harry nodded. He wasn't sure about this place yet.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you all for reviewing, it means a lot :)  
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**I was planning on updating this last night but I hadn't finished writing it :( I'm planning on updating this piece three times a week at least :)**

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><p>Danny handed Harry a sloppy jam sandwich, it was cut unevenly down the middle and had finger prints all over it. Watching as the other three boys shoved their sandwiches into their mouths, it seemed that Tom had an understanding for table manners unlike the other two. If he had seen somebody at school eat like this then he probably would have laughed at them from a distance with his mates. But here - here was different, Harry felt like he couldn't immediately judge these kids because he knew that each of them would have a harsh story to tell. One that would make him give them those sympathetic eyes that he had seen from adults repeatedly since the crash.<p>

But all the same, he didn't want to eat the sandwich.

Deciding to pick it apart, hoping that it would make it look slightly more appetizing, Harry ate the sandwich out of pure politeness. And praying that he didn't get some sort of disease from eating it because he had not seen Danny, Tom or Dougie wash their hands before eating or preparing the food.

"So, why are you here?" Dougie asked, his mouth full of food.

Harry looked at the floor, the terracotta coloured tiles suddenly becoming much more interesting than anything else in the room. Despite knowing that this question would be asked, Harry was hoping for it to come later rather than sooner. And though he had rehearsed what he was going to say countless amounts of times in his head on the drive over, he found himself completely lost for words. He had never had to explain what had happened to his parents, there had always been somebody there to do it for him.

"My parents died a few weeks ago." Harry sighed looking up at the other three.

"How." Danny said. Harry didn't want to answer. He had known these people for a matter of minutes and already he had moved in with them and they wanted to know his life story.

Well not his whole life story, just the last three weeks of his life. They probably wouldn't care too much to hear about all the fun times he had living on the posh end of his estate and truanting from school.

"Plane crashed." He said, biting down on his lower lip. He didn't like the taste of those words that he knew would be leaving his mouth frequently for the rest of his life. "What about you three, why are you here?"

Harry watched as the three of them turned to look at each other, it didn't seem that they wanted to explain why they were in care either. Both Tom and Dougie looked worried, but Danny shrugged.

"My parents didn't want me. They were like, uh, my age when I was born so I was adopted, then my adopted parents split up when I was three and neither were that attached to me so I went into care. Then I got adopted when I was four and then when I was six they sent me back to the group home 'cos I was too much to handle. Then I jumped from group home to foster home to group home until I was bought here when I was thirteen." Danny was the first northern person Harry had met. In fact, in his town there were very few people who had moved in. It was a tiny town with nothing but a bunch of upmarket homes and a few dodgy schools and the fact that the schools were definitely not the greatest often would put people off buying their homes there. Since both of Harry's parents had lived in the area all their lives, they thought it was a great place - as did many of the residents.

"Oh." Harry said, not knowing what else to say. In a way Danny made him feel better, at least Danny wouldn't try (and fail) to console him because he had been through a rougher time than him.

"Yeah." Danny wiped his mouth even though there was nothing on it and silence filled the air. Tom was fiddling with the zip on his fleece and Dougie was kicking his shoe against the counter causing a muffled thump every few seconds. Clearly neither of them wanted to speak of why they were in care and didn't plan on saying anything until the subject was changed.

"How old are you?" Harry asked, hoping that this would cut through the silence and awkwardness.

"I'm Sixteen, Dan is Fifteen..."

"I'm sixteen in two weeks." Danny interjected but Tom ignored him

"And Dougie is Fourteen, you?" Tom answered, still not looking up from his zip. Harry couldn't understand what was on that zip that was keeping him so entertained. Or was it just that the zip was more entertaining than Harry?

It probably was that, Harry hadn't been the most interesting person since arriving here.

"Sixteen." Harry put his jam sandwich on the counter next to Dougie, minimally eaten but completely destroyed from all the picking at it that Harry had done.

"Did ya' not like it?" Dougie said, passing looks from the dismantled jammy mess on the plate to Harry.

"Not really." Harry answered bluntly. "Sorry."

"S'alright, you should have said something we could have got you something different." Harry smiled, he probably wouldn't have eaten anything Danny made. It was evident that he would fail the catering GCSE that Harry was taking.

I doubt that the school would even allow him onto the course if his food prep skills were that low.

"Do you want to see your room?" Tom said, finally looking up from his zip. Harry nodded and followed the boys up the stairs, picking up the suitcase he had left by the front door.

Diane was still talking with Mike about him, Harry didn't know that there was that much back story to him that Diane would need to know, he was a pretty average person. Average B/C grade student, normal amount of friends, only received a few lunch detentions for forgetting homework or talking in class. At parents evening the teachers rarely had much to say to him because they barely knew him, he was just another face in the class room who didn't stand out because he was exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. He was just Harry Judd.

And the only thing that had changed since parents evening a few months ago was that he no longer had parents. And Diane already knew that.

Upstairs wasn't much different to downstairs, painted angora with dark wood skirting boards.

"Diane and Sam sleep in the attic." Dougie said, pointing upstairs. "We sleep in these rooms."

"This is your room. It's the smallest one, sorry 'bout that." Danny pointed to the second door on the left. "That one is mine." Danny then pointed to the first door next to the stairs. Harry didn't need Danny to point that out, it did have his name sprawled across the door in big blue letters. "Get settled, Tom come help me with my maths homework."

"Danny, I'm not doing it for you again. Miss MacLaren will notice if you go from getting nothing in homework to getting the majority of marks."

"Please Tom. I can't get a detention again this week."

"No Danny." Tom huffed.

"Please Tom, I'll do anything." Danny grabbed Toms arms and dragged him into his room.

"I'll help you but I'm not doing it for you again."

"That's all I'm asking."

Opening the door to his room, Harry was shocked at just how small the room was. His room at home was large and spacious with a huge TV and Playstation hooked up at the end of his large double bed. This room was simplistic, painted the same shade of angora as the rest of the house with a single bed in one corner and a double wardrobe on the other. It wasn't a box room but it was certainly the smallest room he had ever stayed in. Even the spare room at his grandmothers place was twice the size of this.

"You can decorate it and stuff in a few weeks. If you decide to stay here. And once your stuff has come." Dougie said quietly, smiling at Harry. "Nobody has stayed in that room since I've been here. But I guess you are a bit of an emergency placement."

"How long have you been here." Harry asked, opening the window of his small bedroom that was already getting stuffy.

"A while." He answered entering the room and dragging his finger along the wall. "Longer than Tom and yourself, not as long as Danny."

Well that was pointless answer. Placing the suitcase on the bed Harry slowly undone it. "I'm going to unpack now, I doubt you will want to hand around to watch this. Boring stuff."

"You have less shit than Tom did when he got here. You won't be long." Dougie sat on the bed next to the suitcase. "Also I'm kinda bored."

"You could go help Danny with his homework." Harry said, taking his clothes out of his suitcase and hanging them in the wardrobe.

"I don't do my own homework."

"You might not know the answers anyway, because you're younger."

"Danny is the stupidest year eleven in the school. I bet his homework is something like the two times table and he can't work it out." Dougie said, laughing slightly to himself.

"Harsh."

"He's in set seven. The school is praying that they get E's in the GCSE's, he will probably take them again next year."

"We don't have a set seven at my school." Harry realised that he had spoken the sentence in present tense, he didn't go to that school anymore. He paused for a moment to see if Dougie had noticed. He hadn't and if he had he wasn't going to say anything about it. "Only one two and three."

"What were you in?" Dougie inquired, turning his head to face Harry.

"One. It was easy to get into one when everybody else was thick." Dougie snickered under his breath.

"Your clothes are posh. Not cheap high street stuff." Dougie poked at some of the soft fabrics in the case.

"They aren't posh." Harry raised an eyebrow. "Better than the stuff I've ever had." There was silence for a moment. "Sorry about your parents."

"Yeah." Harry looked at the floor, things always came back round to them.


	3. Chapter 3

**I was going to update Friday but I Got the results from my Prelims. Got a U in chemistry and now I have to attend interventions every week. At least I am passing Spanish and English Lit :)Then on Saturday it was my brothers 18th birthday. So thank you for being patient :)  
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**Thank you all for the kind words of praise and help, I think you are all fabulous.**

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><p>Harry had never been a huge fan of the night. The temperature dropped and it was dark. Also time passed much slower and he was never a deep sleeper so the smallest thing could wake him up.<p>

But the thing that had woke him up was not small. Not small at all.

He hadn't been in asleep for that long, at least he didn't think he had because the light from the hall was still shining underneath his door. But the house was practically silent, the only thing that could be heard was the ringing of the radiator in his room. But he had become pretty much immune the buzzing sound so he was able to sleep through it.

But of course, living in a house of six people was never going to be easy. Living in the group home was bad and he spent the majority of his time there sleeping from the drugs that the doctors had issued him or getting high on the drugs that he had issued himself. After around two hours of sleep Harry was rudely awakened by Tom and Danny playing guitars. And Harry couldn't understand why on earth would anybody want to play the guitar at half twelve on a Sunday night. Especially when the pair of them had school in the morning.

It wasn't that Tom and Danny were bad guitarists, they were both very good. And if it had been a reasonable hour, Harry probably would appreciate the music being played. But Harry was tired and irritable, all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep, so after what felt like an eternity of listening to the 'racket' he decided it was time to do something because laying in his bed was making him angry.

Pulling the clothes he had worn the day before on, he opened his bedroom door and squinted as he adjusted the bright lights. The noise from Danny's bedroom got louder as he stepped out into the hallway. A few notes were played then a whole lot of laughing and 'whispering' went on.

"If you think that going in there will make them quieter you are thinking wrong." Harry turned round to find Dougie standing in the doorway of his room. "Danny used to be louder. Tom actually has made him quieter."

"This isn't quiet. Some people might actually like sleeping." Harry said irritably.

"You know quiet isn't always best." Dougie smirked at Harry but Harry wasn't in the mood, all he really wanted to do was sleep.

"It is to sleep in." Harry retorted causing Dougie to tut.

"It isn't that bad. They are both pretty good."

"They can be good in the morning."

"They'll be at school in the morning.

"Good." Harry crossed his arms, they were already getting cold.

"You whine a lot Harry." Dougie said, stepping out the doorway of his bedroom.

"This is the first time I whined to you."

"But I can tell. You are going to whine a lot." Harry sighed and looked at Dougie.

"And I can tell that you are one of those annoying twelve year olds who think that they are better than everybody else."

"No." Dougie said blankly. "You're wrong."

"I'm right."

"No. You're wrong. I'm not twelve, I'm fourteen." Grinning from ear to ear Dougie stepped forward.

Harry smirked back. "Fourteen year old who thinks he is better than everyone else."

"Wrong again. I don't think I'm better. I know it." Dougie walked past Harry.

"Haven't you got school in the morning?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, But I have P.E first lesson and I'm not going to do it so I might just have a lay in." He shrugged and walked off.

"P.E is better than most subjects."

"But I'd rather stay in bed." Dougie laughed to himself.

"Won't you get in trouble."

"I'm the troubled little care kid. I can literally do what I want and people still feel bad for me and blame my parents for the way I am." Dougie beamed at Harry again but Harry couldn't return it. He empathy for Dougie. "I wear trainers to school everyday but if anyone else does then they get put in internal exclusion."

Harry nodded in politeness. He didn't agree with what Dougie was doing but he was in no position to tell him that. He barely knew the kid.

"Go to bed Harry, I'll get Tom and Danny to shut up."

"How? They are both way older, stronger, taller and bigger than you."

"Teachers aren't the only ones I can get to feel sympathetic for me. I will go in there, frown and say I have a headache, then they will stop." Dougie began to walk away from Harry when his wrist was grabbed.

"Why didn't you just do that when I first came out of my room?" Harry asked, slightly annoyed.

"Because then we wouldn't have had this fantastic conversation." Dougie tapped Harry's cheek and pulled away. "Now go back to bed, I need to get into acting mode."

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><p>Harry was awoken again in the morning to the sound of Diane shouting up the stairs at Danny for not waking up on time. After waking up early the day before to leave the group home and come to his new house and the awakening that lasted much longer than necessary, thanks to Dougie, Harry was still tired. And laying in the miniscule bed with the duvet around his ears wasn't helping him get back to sleep.<p>

The door creaked open to reveal Diane, smiling at him. "Hello Love, are you okay?"

Harry smiled and sat up, he wasn't quite awake enough to answer her properly.

"The boys will be in school today. Tom's already left and Danny won't get up." Harry nodded in agreement. "My husband, he will take you out today. Get you to pick some more clothes out. I would take you myself but the other three boys always complain and say that I pick out bad things and make them try things on." Harry laughed. "Also, I have to stay at home and look after poor Dougie. He is feeling a little under the whether."

Harry chuckled to himself as he pulled the duvet farther across his chest. "Thanks Diane."

"Go back to sleep Harry." She smiled again and Harry put his head back onto the pillow.

"I will." He said groggily as Diane closed the door gently before she began to call for Danny again.

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><p><strong>Just a short chapter to show his first night. <strong>

**And another reason I updated later than I wanted to: FLAPPY BIRD.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry I've been gone :( I moved house and had no internet blah blah blah. But I have written most of the story now just need to type it and update it.**

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><p>Adjusting to life in his foster home wasn't to easy for Harry. He had gone from having whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to getting a little amount of attention.<p>

It wasn't that he didn't like Sam and Diane; they were both extremely nice people. Diane done absolutely everything she could for all four of the boys. And Sam, although he worked a lot and spoke very little compared to his wife, was always happy to help any of the boys out. But Diane and Sam, although Harry was very grateful for them, weren't his parents. And though they were great people, Harry's parents were the pinnacle of amazement.

His new 'brothers' were completely different story. Going from an only child to one of four was a massive transition and he felt like he was the youngest because he was the newest and felt like he needed to impress the others. Before, he used to watch sky sports until mid afternoon on Sunday but now there was an argument over who got to watch what and when. And Harry never was the one to choose and if they did ever let him choose he probably would hand the controller over to Tom who would put something that they could all stand.

Then again, Tom, Danny and Dougie were definitely not the worst people he could be stuck with. While he was staying at the group home he saw kids with knives and there was always at least one fight per day. Harry actually quite liked the boys, he wasn't sure whether he could list them as friends yet but they were more than just acquaintances. Although he would much prefer if they slept at normal hours and didn't spend half their time laughing at each other while watching a dodgy TV show that should be canceled.

Harry sat on the wall outside the house. It had been decided that the foster placement would be semi permanent and that it was time for Harry to get some of his belongings back. He had been told that his grandparents had gone through his bedroom and sorted everything that they think he will need for the time being and that Harry could come down in April to go through the rest of the house and choose what needed to be kept. But waiting was stressful and all he could think about was having a cigarette or smoking some weed and there was no way he could smoke here. He doubted that Diane would be too impressed with him smoking and he didn't know where any of the good places to smoke without getting caught were. He had thought about asking the others but Tom was way to clean for drugs or cigarettes, Dougie was still a child really, he was going to ask Danny but in the five days he had been here he hadn't been able to smell smoke on Danny and Harry wasn't sure if he could ask somebody who didn't smoke themselves.

"What time is all your crap coming?" Dougie asked as he sat down on the wall nest to Harry; Danny and Tom moving to his other side.

"Children shouldn't swear Dougie." Harry replied monotonously.

"Whatever."

" But seriously, when is it coming?" Dan said as he pulled out his phone. "Because you've been sitting out here for fifty hours and that's, like, forever."

"Dan, you mean minutes, not hours." Tom corrected.

"Huh?"

"You mean minutes, Harry's been out here for fifty minutes, not fifty hours."

"Does Danny need help telling the time again?" Dougie laughed, leaning across Harry.

"No. I was using hyperbole. It's a form of extreme exaggeration." All the boys turned to look at Danny, not really sure what to make of what he just said. "See, not just a pretty face."

"No, because you don't even have that." Dougie laughed at his own joke and Danny leaped off the wall to push the younger boy from behind.

As Danny and Dougie wrestled each other on the grass, Tom moved up the wall, closer to Harry. Speaking with Tom was easy because he was the only one of the three boys that Harry could have an adult conversation with.

"What are they bringing you today?" Tom asked politely, once again fascinated by the zip on his jumper. Harry had noticed that whenever Tom spoke to him without Danny pretty much speaking every other line for him, Tom would study his zip for the entirety of their conversation. He didn't understand why, Tom spent so long doing it he probably knew absolutely everything about the zip.

"Clothes and school work." Harry muttered. "'Cos I go back to school on Monday." Tom nodded and looked over at Danny who was pinning Dougie to the floor.

"Danny will be in your year. He can help you out, everyone loves him." Harry watched the look that Danny and Tom exchanged whilst Dougie wriggled beneath Danny.

"Let him go Dan, I've told you before that you shouldn't wrestle with Dougie because you're stronger." Tom said as Danny rolled onto the floor so the small blond could run from beneath him.

"I'm stronger than you Tom." Dougie defended himself.

As Danny and Dougie sat down on the wall again all Harry remained silent. Not really wanting to speak, he didn't bother making any interactions with the others and just listened to Danny go on about how unfair one of his teachers was to give him detention and Tom talk about something that happened at college. All Harry wanted to get his stuff off his social worker and organise his bedroom without the others snooping around. He also could do with a cigarette or some weed.

After a while of listening to the various ramblings of the others, his social workers car came down the road and all four boys stood up and Harry felt a wave of anxiety suddenly come over him. He couldn't understand why, he was just being given a load of old clothes and school books. But not understanding the butterflies didn't send them away, they remained there as the social worker parked and walked over to him.

"We haven't bought that much, your grandparents are keeping hold of a lot of it." Harry nodded and grabbed the bag from the social worker quickly. The social worker turned to the other boys, realising that Harry was too busy dragging the bag up the front porch. "Is Diane or Sam in?"

Harry shoved the bag on his bed and opened it straight away. Checking for cigarettes and seeing what clothes his grandparents had sent over.

There was no cigarettes. He would have to go to the corner shop because he really needed some to calm him down.

Sighing, Harry sat down and started to unpack slowly so he could actually take in everything that he had been sent and mentally organise it before actually putting it away. There was the majority of his clothes, including old ones that his grandparents wouldn't realise that didn't fit him anymore. Also all his school work which Harry didn't really know what would be of relevance at the new school. He began to organise it into all sorts of different groups on his bed.

"Your social worker is talking to Diane, probably about school and stuff because you need to catch up with some things." Dougie was standing by the door and didn't move away when Harry didn't acknowledge him or when he finished what he was saying.

"Are you going to stay there staring at me until I invite you in?" Harry asked, still not looking in Dougie's direction.

"You're being moody again." Dougie stepped in the room and sat down on the bed. "You have so many clothes. How rich were you?"

"A lot of them are old. You can take some." Harry gestured to the pile of clothes on the edge of the bed and decided not to answer the question Dougie had asked. "They might be a bit big on you though."

Dougie smiled and began to look through all the different clothes. They were much nicer than most of the stuff that he had ever had, it wasn't cheap stuff and although they were old the fabric was still soft and in nice condition.

"Where are the other two?" Harry asked as he began to start filing his school work into their separate subjects.

"Doing Danny's homework again. But probably making out."

"Are Tom and Danny actually a couple?" Harry asked, remembering the look that two had shared earlier.

"No. I don't know. Tom's gay, that's why he's here, and Danny has this girlfriend but nobody likes her and I think he's into Tom." Harry stopped what he was doing and looked over at Dougie.

"What do you mean that's why Tom's here." Dougie's eyes grew wider in realisation of what he had said. Tom would kill him if he found out that he just told Harry that he was gay and if Dougie upset Tom, then he annoyed Danny.

"Don't tell anyone I said that. Just forget." Dougie said quickly, tossing the pile of clothes to one side. "I'm being serious. Tom and Danny will kill me."

"Tell me what you meant and then I'll forget it."

Dougie hesitated, he was in hot water. He told Harry and pissed off the others or he didn't tell Harry and pissed Harry off. He looked at the clothes.

"If you forget about it then I won't tell Diane that you smoke."

"How did you know that?" Harry asked, he knew that Dougie wasn't stupid but he was hardly Sherlock Holmes. Dougie began to smile mischievously at Harry.

"Your clothes stink of it. And if you don't forget about what I said then I will tell Diane that you smoke and you will get a lecture. You should have seen how long she moaned at Danny for when he tried smoking last year." Harry knew Danny smoked, he wasn't as pure as the other two.

"Fine." Harry sighed, he would have to try to talk to Tom some more. "Why are you difficult?"

"I'm not difficult, I'm Dougie."


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm Back!**

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><p>At this moment in time, Harry wished so much that the education act had not been passed and it would not be illegal for him to drop out of school and become a tosher. Hating school and the lessons wasn't the problem though, sometimes he actually enjoyed some of the work. He was reasonably intelligent so it was never too difficult. And Harry always had enough, and the right, acquaintances so he had never experienced bullying; just the occasional friendly tease.<p>

But Harry didn't want to go to school because anything he was at his old school he would never be at his new school. Here, at the new school, he wasn't Juddy, the boy who helped the school cricket team become victorious. Here he would just be Harry Judd, the care kid with dead parents. There was no escaping from that.

Danny had already told him what stay clear of 'to keep the social away'. Apparently getting into the wrong crowd could mean going to jail for all sorts of crimes as people with parents like to blame care kids for leading them astray. So basically being a care kid was really complicated in terms of having a social life. Harry decided to just stick like glue to Danny as Danny was a complete expert on being a care kid in education.

But having Danny for stability didn't conquer Harry's anxiety. As Dougie liked to point out frequently, Danny wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed (Dougie would probably say he was bluntest) so sticking to Danny's speed in school would probably leave him further behind in lessons than he already was. He had disappeared from school for a month, he was probably further behind than Danny.

"Harry, are you ready?" Tom asked politely while knocking on Harry's door. He had already been barged in on by Dougie first thing this morning telling him to get his "lazy bum out of bed." And about 10 minutes ago Danny had come running in frantically moaning about how he overslept and needed some deodorant for a "sure shower". Which apparently was a substitute for a shower where you spray multiple deodorants and dry shampoo so it looks like you washed when in reality you haven't. It grossed Harry out when Dougie explained it.

"Yeah, just coming." He replied, looking into his mirror one last time. He could see he was getting paler because of his nerves. He didn't like it, Harry Judd didn't get nervous and that was a fact. Whether it was before a cricket game or an important piece of coursework. It didn't really help that the black uniform contrasted with his pale complexion.

He left his room and the other three were already waiting for him, Danny and Dougie wearing the same uniform as him. Danny's was dirty and Tom had already moaned at him for not cleaning it; Dougie's was way to big for him, his sleeves and trousers were rolled up. Tom was lucky, he was in the sixth form and got to wear whatever he wanted.

"You look sick." Dougie said, raising an eyebrow. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." Harry stepped forward and began to walk down the stairs as Danny and Tom began to enthuse about an amazing song they wrote last night.

"Diane we're going!" Dougie called out to the kitchen which Diane quickly emerged from wearing an apron, already making a start on the housework.

"Ok, be good." She turned to Harry. "Are you going to be ok?"

"Yeah." He said a little to quickly but she glanced over it.

"Danny where are your shoes?" She looked at Danny, who had converse on which were quite clearly against the school dress code. He shrugged and carried on walking to the door. "Don't get a detention."

"I won't. I'll tell them I need to walk Dougie home. And show Harry the way home." Diane looked at Danny disapprovingly before turning her attention to Harry.

"Try and keep him out of trouble. Tom did you do his homework again?" Tom shook his head but everyone knew he was lying. "Go to school before your late." She smiled and waved them out the door.

The four boys began walking to school, Dougie explained the walk as "longer than a giraffes neck" then he started laughing, Harry didn't find it that funny. And the walk wasn't even that bad.

Tom and Danny spent the whole time talking to each other, Dougie didn't speak much, he just listened to his music and stayed close to Harry. Which Harry didn't mind. Although Dougie could be a complete, cocky arsehole, Harry actually like Dougie and he was a decent person to have a conversation with. He had helped Harry unpack and saved him a trip to the charity shop because he had happily taken all his old stuff. But what Harry liked most about Dougie was that he had told him a place where you could get away with having a smoke in school. If you asked to go to the toilets in a lesson nobody would see you behind the old bike sheds. When Harry asked how Dougie had got this information he just tapped his nose.

"Harry, you have to come with me to registration." Danny said after saying goodbye to Dougie and Tom who had to go to separate buildings.

Harry followed Danny to their classroom; it wasn't very nice. Harry's old school looked like a palace compared to this dump, it was cold and smelly and there was chewing gum in places Harry couldn't understand. There was chewing gum on the ceiling for gods sake.

"Becky, you have to move. Harry needs to sit there because he's new." A girl, Becky, immediately stood up and moved quickly to the other side of the room. Harry couldn't understand why Danny had so much power in the classroom, even the teacher didn't seem to care that he was making kids move.

As he sat down, Harry felt everyone staring at him. He knew that they knew that he was in care and he knew that they were desperate to know why.

"Becky I need your english homework, I haven't done mine." Danny shouted way louder than necessary but the teacher still didn't look up from her computer.

"Shut up Danny, everyone in the country can probably hear you." A girl said from behind them, her face was orange and she looked pissed off.

"That's good then." Danny said, unfazed by the girl calling him out.

"How is that good?"

"It means my parents can hear me for the first time ever." The whole room just went quieter. People stopped writing and whispering, the teacher stopped typing and Danny just smiled. He was completely aware of what he done. The whole class felt awkward, they clearly knew Danny's story, they all looked agitated. Harry smiled, what Danny had just done was very clever. Maybe it was the years of practice that made Danny able to do this and maybe because in his eyes he didn't have any parents it made it all the more funny. But it was hilarious and the girl who had been rude to Danny would have been red if she didn't have so much make up on.

"Can I speak to Harry?" A teacher said appearing at the door. "Danny you might as well come to." Everyone in the classroom was happy for the boys to leave, hopefully it would take away some of the bad atmosphere.

"Will I be out of first lesson?" Danny asked and the teacher nodded so he threw Becky's work across the classroom. Some of it landed near her, most of it on the floor. At Harry's old school you would have never been able to get away with that, but at Harry's old school they wouldn't have taken on a care kid.

"Miss I need to go to the bogs." Danny said, walking off route.

"You're with us period one Danny so don't be too long. You're behind in maths." Danny rolled his eyes and nodded. Harry continued to follow the teacher, she was old and spoke to Harry like he was five and stupid, until they reached a room which was brighter than the rest of the school and smelt like sterilizer. There were only a handful of kids working in there with teaching assistants. One wall was covered in pictures, Danny seemed to be in a lot of them, the funniest picture was of Danny, Tom and Dougie on what seemed to be Tom's last day in the main school and Dougie and Danny were writing on his uniform. The rest of the room was completely white and clean.

"Sit down Harry." She sat opposite him and opened a folder with his name printed on the front and his school picture from last year. "I'm Mrs Caslin and I'll be your mentor during your time here at South Wickham Comprehensive. Your school reports are very impressive, there aren't many students like you here." Harry smiled falsely then stopped listening as she described the school and how, due to his situation, would need to spend the majority of time in the special help unit.

"You have counseling, obviously." Harry sighed and stared at the ceiling, checking there was no chewing gum, while she talked about his parents death as if he wasn't already aware of every single detail. Nobody would let him forget about it. "Originally you would be doing eleven GCSE's but due your exceptional circumstance we have decided to drop you down to six."

No. Harry couldn't have that. He had worked for the past year and a half to get eleven GCSE's and he was going to do them. He needed them for sixth form and university. What decent place would take someone with less than seven qualifications. He was going to be labelled as a lazy git or people would think he was stupid.

"You can't do that!" Harry shot up angrily, the handful of kids now staring at him. "I've worked for those subjects, I need them. How do you expect me to leave this shit hole with next to no qualifications. The reason I'm so far fucking behind is because I spend more time in counseling than anything else. I'm aware my parents are dead and always will be so stop making me talk about it. Take me out of counseling and let me come to school for what i go to school for." Hearing his voice break slightly, Harry stopped shouting and breathed heavily.

"I'm going for a slash." He walked out and made sure he slammed the door loudly.

He wasn't going to the toilets, not at all. He was going to have a fag. In all honesty, he would rather weed but taking a class B drug to school on your first day wasn't the best way to make an impression. No, he had just screamed at his mentor instead.

He dug around in his pockets as the graffiti covered bike sheds came into view; cigarettes already in his mouth ready to be lit. Even the feeling of an unlit fag between his lips was slightly pleasuring. It had been a long time.

Due to Harry being so relaxed and completely mellowed out by the cigarette, he didn't hear the voices that showed the spot behind the bike sheds wasn't vacant like he thought. No, there were two people already there: kissing, snogging, grinding.

Harry recognised the voices in an instant.

Danny and Tom.

Tom was pushed against the wall and Danny was kissing him hungrily, both giving the odd moan. Tom pulled back and saw Harry straight away. Slowly Danny turned and threw himself off Tom. Clearly Dougie had found this spot after seeing Danny and Tom together.

"Nobody knows ok." Danny said quickly, not even as a question as he doesn't allow Harry to answer before running off. Leaving Harry staring at Tom who excused himself awkwardly after Danny left.

Harry needed to smoke more than ever now.

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><p><strong>I hope the exam season went ok for everyone! I've left school now so no more learning for the next three months until I start college!<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Hiya everyone, I absolutely love writing this story but I'm lazy. Just because I dont update in a while don't panic. I'm not one to abandon stories :)**

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><p>Since Harry had seen Tom and Danny behind the bike sheds, the tension between the three boys was thick enough to cut.<p>

Danny didn't like anyone knowing about his private life and he most definitely didn't like the idea of people think that he was gay. He wasn't gay. He just wasn't straight. In all honesty, Danny had never put any thought into his sexuality. Everybody already knew everything about him, his past, his learning difficulties, this one thing should be allowed to be his. This should be the one thing that nobody else could claim to know everything about.

Harry had felt like he had crossed a line between himself and Tom and Danny that wasn't ready to be crossed. He felt as if he had violated Danny in particular, he hadn't spoken a word since the incident. At least with Tom he could say things such as "Good morning." or "Where's Dougie?" but then that was about as far as he could get.

Tom felt stuck. He felt obligated to ignore Harry because Danny was ignoring Harry. But Tom, unlike Danny, didn't feel ashamed of what happened whatsoever. He was comfortable with who he was. He had spent a long time in the closet wondering if he could ever just tiptoe out.

Besides it was only Harry who walked in on them, he was not the worst person that could have walked in.

Before Tom was out, when he was still living with his parents, he bought a 'friend' home from school when he thought his parents would be at work but it turned out that his mother was off with the flu. She caught him and he friend mid snog. She was unhappy to say the least, she told his dad, kicked him out and told all her incredibly posh friends that he was dead.

Tom slept rough for a week. He wandered around for most of the night, staying away from the places he knew were bad, then went to school in the morning and slept through some of his lessons. At lunch he slept on the field and he would stay at school for as late as he could, sleeping in the library or sometimes just on the stairs. It took the school a week to realise something was wrong. They tried to reason with his parents but when they wouldn't budge they referred him to child services. He spent the rest of his school year in a group home then moved to Diane's in the summer.

"Danny your birthday is in three days and you still haven't told me what cake you want me to make?" Diane called out as she walked into the living room. Tom, Harry and Danny were sitting there separate from each other. Dougie had felt the bad atmosphere earlier and left but the other three sat there trying to prove to each other and themselves that there was nothing bad going on between them.

"I don't care Di, you don't need to make me one. I can pick one up in Tescos after school." Diane shook her head and came behind Danny wrapping her arms around him.

"No, not good enough. Besides this year I have Harry, our budding chef, to assist me in the kitchen this year." Harry momentarily looked up from the telly to smile at Diane.

"That reminds me, have the school let you back into any of your exams/"

Harry shook his head. "Nope, still only six. It would only be five but I done part of the catering GCSE's last year. Lucky for that." Harry shrugged, he didn't want to cause another scene. His therapist had suggested that his anger came from the death of his parents and when Harry tried to argue he was angry because the school was being unfair she had none of it.

"It will be ok, once you get your A Levels GCSE's won't matter." Harry looked back down at the telly.

"Where's Dougie?" Diane asked.

"Upstairs, he keeps nicking my phone to play the Kim Kardashian game and clogging up my internet history with research on Lizards." Harry answered.

"Somebody go get him for dinner." The three boys momentarily looked at each other as Diane left the room. A few seconds later Tom sighed and stood up and started slowly walking to the stairs.

Harry and Danny sat in silence for a moment.

"About the other day.."

"Don't Harry."

"I haven't said anyth..."

"Good. 'Cos like I said, nobody knows." Both of them set their eyes on the tell.

"I think Dougie knows."

"Dougie is just a kid. He still believes in Father Christmas."

Harry slumped himself into the couch, he wasnt getting anywhere. "I'm just saying, if you don't want anyone to know don't suck each other off in a public place."

"We weren't..."

"Whatever."

Despite their conversation, the mood surrounding Harry and Danny was not the best. Nobody wanted to talk and in order to not upset Diane, Dougie finds himself talking the entirety of the meal. He would be having words with the boys after tea to find out why they were all angry with each other. He had noticed the tension a couple of days ago but now being around them was unbearable. But right now he is making the most of talking as much as he wants without anyone laughing at him whilst ignoring the elephant in the room.

"Look what just came in the post for a Mr Daniel Jones." Sam smiled as he walked in, throwing a blue envelope at Danny. "Somebody is keen to say happy birthday."

Danny smiled broadly and ripped open the card. It was clearly expensive there was glitter pouring out of it and gems stuck on it. It had been handmade. As soon as Danny began reading the card his face fell.

"It's from my Mum."

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><p><em>Dear Daniel,<br>_

_I can't believe that you are on the brink of your sixteenth birthday. It doesn't feel like that long since i found out I was pregnant. _

_My name is Grace Mondale and when I was 14 I had you. Biologically I'm your mother. And now you're old enough to understand my decisions I want you to realise how much I love you and how much I wanted to keep you. But I was fourteen and my parents weren't that well off so I had little support. If I had kept you we would probably be living in council flat sharing a bedroom. I definitely would not have gone to university or became a nurse.  
><em>

_I'm not with your father, we broke up before you were even born. I try to keep in contact with him as much as possible but last year he was arrested for theft. I'm not sure how long he will be inside for.  
><em>

_I am married, I wanted you to be there but you would have only been 12 and you wouldn't have known who I was. I thought of you all day though. I think of you everyday. _

_I want to be part of your life and I want you to be part of mine. _

_With Love,_

_Grace_

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><p>Danny was sat on his bed, he had read the card from his mother over and over and he still couldn't get his head around it. His parents weren't people he thought about very often. Occasionally they crept into his thoughts but he never thought of himself as somebody who had parents. He didn't think of them as dead like Harry's, but just... nonexistent.<p>

But the card had made some strange feelings boil to the surface. His parents could walk down the street and he wouldn't have any clue.

He wasn't sure how he was supposed to think about the card, his Mum had abandoned him when he was a new born but she clearly had her reasons, yet he wasn't happy with her. She never even gave him a try, never tried to raise him, she didn't even bother trying to get an open adoption. And now, days before his sixteenth birthday, she decided to contact him.

She wasn't supposed to contact him. Diane got upset and Sam had to call social services to see if she was a threat at all. They also had to check that Grace Mondale was even her real name or if somebody was trying to get to Danny through the absence of his parents. Thankfully that wasn't the case.

He wanted to talk to his Mum, he wanted a relationship with her to. But he also wanted to ask her questions as to why she didn't want him.

"Hey Danny." Tom smiled lopsidedly as he opened the door to see Danny laying on his bed motionless. "How're you feeling?"

Danny didn't reply, he didn't even move. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

"It's ok, but surely your Mum talking to you is a good thing." Tom sat on the end of Danny's unmade bed and Danny propped himself onto his elbows.

Danny stared at Tom. "I don't want to talk to anyone at the moment."

"It's okay, we can get through this together." Tom placed his hand on Danny's thigh, it wasn't something unusual for them to do but Danny batted his hands away.

"We aren't boyfriend and girlfriend Tom. Leave me alone."

"I was just trying to help."

"Well don't." Danny's words were spoken out of anger, he wasn't sure if he meant them but when Tom stood up to leave he felt a wave of relief go over his head. He couldn't deal with Tom, not now. And the crisis of his questioning sexuality that he had been going through was tiny in comparison to his mother. He needed time to focus on his family and Tom made him think of other, less important things.


	7. Chapter 7

**Back for a quick chapter. **

**Also I have a flash forward almost completed set around christmas, which will be out later this month. I'm going to publish it as a separate fic as it won't be necessary to read as part of the general story. **

"You shouldn't have spoken to Tom like that." Danny looked up to see Dougie in the door way, judging him with one hand on his hip and the other resting on the door frame.

"Don't tell me how I should act right now Doug. I'm not in the mood for you or anybody else." He looked back down and began to reread his birthday card for what seemed like the thousandth time but this time he studied the handwriting. It was completely different from his, absolutely nothing alike. It was large and curly and extremely neat. When Danny had imagined his mother, which he had done a lot throughout the years, he always thought that she and him would be alike. Two peas in a pod, almost identical. To be fair he had never imagined what her handwriting would look like but as this was the only thing he knew about her and it couldn't be more different. He had considered that perhaps he was more like his Father but all he knew about him was that he was in jail. Danny didn't want to be like him. Perhaps he should have considered that maybe his handwriting wasn't genetic and inherited from a parent and rather a result of his upbringing, but that didn't matter. He wasn't going to have the nature vs. nurture argument with himself.

"I don't care what you are or aren't in the mood for, I'm still going to talk to you." Danny didn't bother replying this time, expecting Dougie to get bored quickly and leave to have a proper conversation with somebody else.

But Dougie didn't get bored, he walked in and sat there nattering on about how upset Tom was because of what Danny had said and how Diane was talking to the social about Danny's parents and how Harry was still trying to convince the school he wasn't hopeless. Danny didn't give two craps about Harry's school work but he did feel a pang of guilt about Tom. But he wasn't going to let Dougie know that.

"You're card is nice by the way, its expensive to. Once, when I was about eight my mum got me a 29p one from card factory. She didn't give it to me on my birthday though, she gave it to me in like June. I'm pretty sure she bought it for one of her boyfriends before they broke up and didn't want to see it as a waste of money." Danny shoved the card under his pillow so Dougie couldn't see it. He wasn't ready to share everything he knew about his parents. He _needed _to be the one to know the most about them.

Danny's parents never wanted access or contact. Even when he was shoved into a group home because he'd got through two sets of adoptive parents before he was even ten and there was no point in taking a home away from a child who deserved it more, his parents didn't want to see him. Back then he was a cute and impressionable child, he easily could have been molded into their son. But now he was a teenage boy who was failing all of his subjects and spent all his life bouncing around the care system. He was written off by most of his teachers before he was even given a chance, therefore there was no point in trying.

"Doug can you just go please? I want to be by myself." Tears were pricking Danny's eyes.

"Dan, come on." Dougie sighed deeply. "It's only your Mum, your lucky she wants to see you. Think about Harry's parents, they're dead."

"Can you shut up about Harry for once in your life? I don't need some fourteen year old giving me life advice." Danny shouted, shocking Dougie.

"What has age got to do with it." He looked at Danny again. "Look, judging by what your Mum has written she seems alright." Dougie barely gets to finish what he's saying before Danny throws him to the floor in anger.

He's pinned down and he can't move, Danny is taller and a lot stronger than he is so there is no point struggling.

Dougie deserved to be beaten up, if they were in a group home or many other of the foster homes Danny has been in then the moment Dougie walked in he would have been beaten up. He shouldn't have looked at the card, it wasn't his business.

Danny never acted like this. They always would play fight, wrestling each other for the telly remote and the last packet of malteasers. But this was different; the pain was intentional. He was pretty sure there were bruises forming on the tops of his arms.

"I told you to leave me alone." This wasn't even the way that Danny would usually speak. It was in a low hushed tone that scared Dougie. He felt unsafe. In Danny's head this was being let off easy, he should be putting Dougie in hospital. That's what he deserved really.

Dougie decided he didn't want to reply, he's too scared and he was taking back with utter shock. He wasn't really sure what to expect as Danny kept him pinned to the wall, mainly because he wouldn't have even imagined Danny doing this five seconds ago so he wasn't sure what Danny could be capable of.

He knew that Danny had been in fights before, with kids at school and in his previous foster and group homes, those fights were probably a lot more painful and dangerous than this. This wasn't even a fight, just Danny trying to drill holes through his upper arm

Danny threw Dougie against the wall which resulted in a large thud and a yelp from the younger boy. Clearly the noise had been loud enough to draw attention as Tom came in while Danny was still standing over Dougie, looking angry.

Not even sure what he had just done, Danny didn't even move. Just stared venom down towards Dougie who still looked petrified. If he had been watching himself he probably wouldn't have recognised himself.

Standing in the doorway, Tom was scared of Danny as well. He was aware of the damage that his best friend had caused in the past. They used to confide in each other; Danny had promised him that he wasn't like that anymore.

"Harry!" Tom called out, as he moved towards Danny.

"Get out Tom." Danny sighed. "Go away."

"What's wrong with you Danny?" Harry screamed as he walked in. Despite annoying him ninety percent of the time, Harry had become extremely close to Dougie. And although he sometimes thought about screaming at Doug to shut up, he would never actually do it and seeing the fear in the young teenagers face gave him a strong sense of protection.

He wanted to hurt Danny.

"He's only a kid." He pushed Danny out the way.

"Why Dan." Tom looked so disappointed, which was what broke Danny's heart more than anything else.


	8. Chapter 8

**#lookwhosback!**

**anyway thank you for all the support!**

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><p>Despite it being Danny's birthday, he hadn't bothered getting up because he knew nobody would want to speak to him. Diane and Sam had grounded him for (probably) life, and the others (most likely) hated him.<p>

Of course, Danny knew that they had good reason to but, on the whole, he hated them hating him. But they didn't understand. They all had origin stories-even if they weren't the nicest. But Danny, he didn't have anything. On a family tree there would just be him. He had never had any sort of family other than the millions of foster families he'd lived with. He just wished people would stop invading his privacy with their 'kind words'.

He probably had more privacy in all his group homes put together, including the one when he shared a room with a kid who would constantly and steal everything he owned.

More than anything, Danny just wished Tom would speak to him and they could go back to the way things were before Harry shoved his nose in and his mum got in the way. He wanted them to be able to stay up together, sneaking into each others rooms once everyone had gone to bed, listening to music with an earphone each and sneaking kisses between songs. But the big purple bruise on the top of Dougie's arm was a constant reminder of the person Danny truly was. And even though Doug had assured him things were fine and he knew that Danny didn't mean it, Danny knew that wasn't the case. And Dougie never seemed to be around Danny without Harry hovering in the background. Like an annoying fly nobody could swat.

Harry had been giving him the stink eye for the last couple of days and Danny wished he'd get off his high horse. Harry could never understand anything Danny did, he'd had a sheltered, middle class life for sixteen years and now he's a middle class orphan he'll get more sympathy from middle class people. Harry spoke posher than anyone else he'd ever met and all his mannerisms just showed that they were from such different social groups. Even if Danny had stayed with his biological parents when he was born he'd probably be living in a council flat. Or in a young offenders institute.

Danny couldn't help but think how Harry's parents status was probably the reason that he got such a nice foster placement so quickly.

And to think him and Dougie thought Tom was posh.

Danny looked at the time and decided that he couldn't hide away in bed all day, after all it was his birthday and he didn't want to look back on his sixteenth birthday when he's sixty (and none of what was going on now would matter to him) and feel sad.

"Oh look, the birthday boy decided to rise." Diane smiled as she got up and kissed his cheek and gave him a cupcake. Danny grinned back at her then sat on the edge of the couch, where the other boys were all sitting. Tom moved up to make room for him, which made him feel slightly happier. "So how does it feel to finally be 16 Dan?"

"Pretty similar to being 15 to be honest." Danny and Diane laughed and then the room fell silent, Danny realised that it was moments like this when Dougie would take it upon himself to stop awkward silences. But now, he was leaning over Harry's shoulder poking Harry's phone. Knowing Doug he was probably introducing Harry to candy crush. Hopefully Harry liked it and Dougie could send all of his annoying requests to him instead.

Danny couldn't help but notice that Tom was fiddling with his zip again; he was nervous. Being in Danny's presence was actually making him nervous and that made Danny want to cry. Tom was the closest Danny had ever been to anyone in his entire life.

"Morning Dan." Sam said quietly. "Treated yourself to an birthday lie then." Danny smiled widely and gave Sam a hug.

"Yeah, felt good to. I've been so tired recently."

"From beating up little kids?" Harry said, Dougie hit him and Harry just smiled smugly to himself.

He was always so smug.

Diane tutted and shook her head. "Why don't you boys go into town today, I'll drop you there if you like."

Danny looked at the other boys and shrugged: Tom smiled and Harry rolled his eyes.

Dougie got up to hug Diane. "Diane you always have the best ideas, I love you so much, also can I borrow a tenner."

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><p>If the tension was bad before it was awful now. It was Danny's birthday and none of the boys seemed to want to acknowledge that he was actually part of the group. Harry seemed to be acting as a buffer between Danny and Dougie and Tom was too busy being intimate with the zip on his coat to pay attention to anything else.<p>

"You know Harry, you don't have to follow Dougie around forever." Danny said, fed up of Harry standing in his way all the time.

"Well, I would but I don't particularly want you to beat him up again." Harry replied, Danny knew he would cause and argument and at the moment he didn't care. Harry had only been in Dougie's life for about half an hour and already he was trying to control him. He barely knew Doug.

"I hardly beat him up did I? And if he's been in care for years, he knows not to get involved in family stuff." People in the highstreet were starting to look at them, Danny wasn't quiet at the best of times, let alone when he's angry.

"You are so stupid Dan he was trying to help you, after you'd already upset Tom. He didn't know you were going to slap him about."

"Come on, if he was in most other foster homes he would have ended up in hospital for what he did."

"Oh it was so kind of you to only beat him up a little bit, you really are the loveliest person in the world Dan, absolutely wonderful. An amazing person who beats up children."

"He's hardly a child! And the why do you want to protect him so bad, you barely know him!"

"What are you insinuating?"Harry said way to calmly as he squared up to Danny. Dougie started muttering "come on Harry." and trying to pull the pair away. "Because the only person who's having a sexuality crisis right here is you!"

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><p>"Harry, you're an absolute dick." Dougie said quietly as he sipped his hot chocolate, he'd managed to drag Harry away from having a fight in the middle of the street and drag him to the closest Starbucks to calm down. "You shouldn't have bought up Tom and Danny's thing, you should've stayed out of it."<p>

Harry shrugged, Dougie hoped he was feeling guilty on the inside and desperately trying not to show it, he knew how arrogant Harry could be. "He shouldn't have beat up a kid and then carry on justifying it to himself, maybe he should show some sort of remorse for hurting you."

Dougie rolled his eyes. "He barely hurt me, I'm not a kid, I can handle myself."

Harry slouched over the table and looked up and Dougie. "Dougie, you don't get it, what sort of person wants to beat up..."

"Harry, don't call me a kid again."

"No, fine, okay. Who wants to beat up someone like you. Whether or not you're a kid, you're too innocent. Everything you do is done with good intentions."

"I'm a care kid Harry, there's no such thing as an innocent care kid."

"Doug, I just don't want you to get hurt and I don't trust him."

Dougie looked down at his hot chocolate again. "He's not there for you to trust, he's family."

"He's not really though is he."

Dougie shook his head at Harry and sighed. "Right, okay. The thing is for me, Danny is my family and I'm his. We've been together for almost three years, and for care kids like us, that's as close as family we will get. Tom he had a family before he came here, albeit a shit one. And you're a posh kid and you should't be here."

Harry took Dougie's hand. "Doug, why are you in care?"

Dougie pulled his hand away. "I don't want to talk about it, do you want another drink?"

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><p>"Why is Harry always so fucking smug?" Danny huffed as he walked along the street with Tom standing at a distance.<p>

"Danny can you calm down or something?" Tom complained, trying to grab Danny's hand and calm him down, unsurprisingly Danny kept pulling it away.

"He thinks he knows Dougie best when really he's only known him for a couple of weeks. And what does he think he has in common with Doug? Nothing, he's a stupid posh boy who has no idea what it's like to have it rough."

"Dan come on, his parents just died. He's hardly had it easy." Tom said, still trying to catch up with Danny. He was getting out of breath, he should probably actually take part in one of his P.E lessons instead of getting somebody to forge a sick note.

"What so three weeks out of sixteen years have been a bit rough. I've had it everyday since the day I was born. Literally, nobody has wanted me since the day I was born. And then my first set of adoptive parents couldn't bond with me and then the second lot kicked got rid of me cos I kept getting in fights. Nobody has ever wanted me Tom!" Tom could hear Danny's voice break, he knew that this was something Danny never wanted to talk about. He always acted like he didn't care that he was in care but Tom knew it obviously wasn't easy for Danny. Three sets of parents had rejected him before he had even left primary school.

Tom finally got hold of Danny and turned his body so they were facing each other. "Danny, come on you know that's not true. You're mum even wrote that she wanted to keep you in her card."

Danny shook his head and then lowered it onto Tom's shoulder. "I don't know Tom. It's all too much, Dougie is basically my little brother and I still hurt him." Danny paused and sniffed. His eyes were glassy and Tom knew that if they were back in the comfort of their house Danny would be bawling his eyes out. "Then there's you."

"Danny, don't."

"I'm so mean to you and you're the nicest person ever to me. I don't get it." Danny moved away from Tom.

"Danny, you don't get it. When I first came to the house, I had gone from having everything to having nothing, and all I could think about how rubbish it was that I had to like boys instead of girls. And then that night, when I forced you to watch Back to the Future with me, we kissed, I knew that it didn't matter that my parents didn't want to know me because of who I am. Because if I wasn't who I was born to be, I'd still be living miserably somewhere in London and I wouldn't have you."

Danny smiled and took Tom's hand. "I still don't deserve you."

"I know you don't. But I love you anyway."

"Good." Danny laughed to himself. "I love you to."

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><p><strong>THANKS FOR READING and honestly I swear writing nice reviews for me actually makes me want to write more! Thanks guys!<br>**


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